If you walk into Heidi Hulliung's elementary art room, the first thing you'll notice is the color. It spills from every wall, every shelf, every corner—a joyful collision of student work, supplies, posters, and possibility. The second thing you'll notice is the energy. Kids come in buzzing, eager, already reaching for paper or markers before they're even fully seated. "They love to free draw," Heidi said. "They get the first ten minutes every day. I think drawing is fundamental."

But the real story of art in Litchfield isn't the paint or the projects. It's the culture. It's the way this district has decided that creativity matters, that fine motor skills matter, that confidence matters, and that the arts shouldn't be a luxury for only the big or wealthy schools. And it's the way Heidi, now in her third consecutive year teaching art, has woven herself into the developmental arc of nearly every child who passes through the early grades.

Her path to the classroom wasn't traditional. She didn't grow up planning to be a teacher. She grew up a doodler—a kid who always drew. Art runs deep in her family. Her father is an artist and musician who sculpted ice with chainsaws. Her brother can draw the Mayflower perfectly. Her sister's a baker, her mom's a baker, her dad's a chef. "It just runs in our family pretty deep, even into other cousins," she said. "It's just a strong bloodline of art love."

Later, she became a graphic designer, trained on the job in Georgia during the early days of the Apple revolution in 1986. She remembers QuarkXPress, Aldus PageMaker, camera-ready mechanicals, and the orange tape used in the old pre-digital layout process. "It was like my college years without college," she said. "And they paid me instead of the other way around."

When the printing industry downsized in the mid-90s, and she had a baby and a new house, it felt like the right moment to pivot. She went to Southwestern Illinois College, then SIUE, and discovered she loved learning new mediums. "Every class I took, I just enjoyed, and I excelled at every medium that I tried," she said. "I just found out that I had a knack for it. And I thought, well, if I love learning and doing new things all the time, I should maybe be a teacher."

Her first stint in Litchfield was back in 2011–12, filling in during a leave of absence. Then came years of subbing, two years as a pre-K aide, and finally, in 2023, the chance to reclaim the art room. "Here I am," she said.

Her students benefit from something more than skill. Heidi brings a deeply integrated approach to teaching. They study the Northern Lights, learn the science behind them, watch videos, and then create their own glowing interpretations—which became even more magical when the real aurora appeared twice over Illinois last year. "The timing couldn't have been any better," she said.

For younger grades, she blends art and literacy. Last year her K–1 students became authors and illustrators, creating their own storybook, The Moth That Saved Halloween. Every child drew themselves as the heroic moth, made wings, and brought the tale to life. "It was kind of exciting for them to every class to find out where we're going next in our book," she said.

She's equally committed to foundational skills. When she arrived, many kids had little experience using rulers. Now she teaches rulers starting in kindergarten, and students reach for them even during free draw. "They just think they're having fun," she said. "And it's a fantastic skill."

Her classroom is a haven for exploration. Markers, paint, coils of clay in fourth and fifth grade—these things unleash something in students they don't always know how to express. "When do we get to do clay?" kids ask constantly. "When you're in fourth and fifth grade," she tells them. "I just can't wait," they say.

And she makes sure the experience is safe. "I don't want you to worry about it being graded," she said. "I want them to learn the techniques and learn how to draw and learn how to color and learn color theory. I want them just to feel free to create what they can create."

Her belief is simple but profound: "Nothing can build your confidence more than when you do something that you didn't think you could do."

Then there's the art fair—a cultural highlight in Litchfield's year. Last year she shifted it to individual buildings, creating expansive space with activity stations, selfie booths with Van Gogh, the Mona Lisa, and Edvard Munch's The Scream, plus a book fair woven in. "It looked like a museum," she said. "The community was blown away."

And she's watching kids grow. Students she taught scissors and name-writing in pre-K now thrive in first and second grade. "I've seen a lot of growth in the last three years," she said. "I'm really proud of what I've been doing."

In Litchfield, that matters. And Heidi Hulliung is helping build a generation of confident creators, one drawing, one coil of clay, one flash of color at a time.